Friday, June 13, 2008

Hello again

Another week done, many more blessings. The girls have just 3 more days of school, and then its summertime! Though you wouldn't know it by the weather. It hadn't cracked 60 at all in the past couple of weeks, except for a few hours late yesterday afternoon and this afternoon. *sigh* I do remember often feeling rather impatient with the Northwest weather every June, but this is ridiculous! I was going to post a picture of the wool sweater I was wearing for most of the week, but didn't get to it. So you can imagine my favorite hot pink turtleneck cableknit wool sweater being worn around this week, when it should be deeply buried in my closet! I'm not bitter....much.

So anyway, I'm reading another fabulous book, "The Quotidian Mysteries", subtitled Laundry, Liturgy, and Women's Work by Kathleen Norris, an author I've loved for her realistic, thoughtful essays about finding her spiritual path back to the church in her 30's. Quotidian basically means dailiness, ordinary, menial, etc. This is a wonderful little book, just 108 pages long but full of deep wisdom. I find myself wanting to underline whole sections of the book, and then I realize its really just the whole book I want to remember. She talks about finding God through the rituals of daily, ordinary living, that in fact, He is speaking through these very things, wanting us to find him there. That we all can sometimes battle "acedia", spoken of by monks for centuries, or the feeling of listlessness, despair or simply annoyance and resentment of the daily tasks of life, and yet we can find our greatest peace by simply embracing these moments as a kind of liturgy for our lives. I think so many moms battle this everyday, the feelings of why am I cleaning the house when its only going to get dirty again in 5 minutes, or the resentment at the ever present laundry pile. Anyway, its another book I highly recommend! I got it from my library and its a short book, but I find myself lingering over it, really wanting to soak it in.

Here are some pictures I found on my camera after giving the eldest daughter a turn...another photographer in the making!

Isn't he a handsome fella?

Oh! And the 2nd eldest daughter has lost her first tooth this morning which met with squeals of joy after days and days of asking how much longer til it comes out?

We kicked off the weekend tonight by making homemade pizza and watching "The Water Horse", which was a lot like Free Willy except, you know, it was a loch ness monster instead. Still the kids enjoyed it, and the pizza was yummy. Tomorrow we're going to Fall City Days, a little street fair at the little town down the road from our little town. The girls and I are getting haircuts for our girls day at the beauty salon, and then the biggest has her choir recital tomorrow night. Sunday, Dad's day, we'll have a super good extra yummy breakfast, probably a hike, and then Dad's favorite lasagna for dinner. Mmm, mmm good.